Ninja Raft Preview

Will ninjas and pirates ever get along?

Ninjas can do a lot of cool stuff, but they’re not necessarily in their element when it comes to naval battles. Hence, they might need some assistance when Ninja Raft hits iOS and Android later this year. It’s tower defense with a wrinkle as the ninjas try to fight off pirates aboard a big freaking raft. How can that last sentence not at least want to make you read on?

Unlike most tower defense games, Ninja Raft splits the action into two phases. The first is the building phase, where you decide how to use the available resources to best secure your precious cargo. Your decisions play a big part in deciding how each level will play, and you’ll have dojos, archery towers and traps at your disposal. Like I said, this is a very large raft.

Once the construction is done, it’s all hands on deck as the pirates come to call. They want your cargo, and it’s up to you to assign the ninjas to different duties, including intercepting pirates on foot and manning the archery towers. The two-man development team at GeekBrain Games is promising that no two play sessions are the same since the pirate attacks are randomized, and later stages will even feature full-sized pirate galleons that come at you with cannons blazing.

GeekBrain is aiming for a third quarter release through publisher Right Pedal Studios, so the artwork and some of the details may still change. That should give you plenty of time to brush up on your ninja-commanding skills, and who knows – maybe you’ll turn those masked men into seafaring warriors yet.